Mothers of The Plaza de Mayo - Significance of Voice

Significance of Voice

The public and collaborative nature of the activism engaged in by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is in stark contrast and opposition to the oppression and silence of the government. Many victims dealt with the stress by "retreating into private worlds and turning inward. As they became separated from each other, their lives were controlled by the terror that influenced every thought, action and feeling"(Arditti 82). The response of isolation by these individuals allowed the government to maintain a level of control through fear. When the Mothers began to talk to each other and tell their stories this represented a major break in the habits of isolation. These discussions did not only combat the desired silence and isolation of the government. Rather, stories of other mothers and grandmothers served as inspiration for other women to begin searching for their missing children and helped to grow the movement.

The visibility and consistency of the women located in the central business district of Buenos Aires, which is the financial and political capital of Argentina, and in some cases South America. They moved into a physically male dominated space and ultimately redefined the meaning of an open social space. Furthermore, many of these women were coming to the urban business districts of Buenos Aires from rural parts of Argentina. The Mothers’ movement represented connections between various spheres of life that remained isolated under the dictatorship. It represented connections between the public and private, domestic and public, rural and urban. The voices of the Mothers and Grandmothers have been recorded in many books, magazines, websites and other publications. The continued exposure of the stories of these families, told by the matriarchs of the family, helps to extend the critical public nature of the movement through time and space. Recording these dialogues is critical for awareness of injustices in the future. Not only will there always be a record of the human rights violations that occurred in Argentina's Dirty War, but there will also be a record of the power of group communication and collaboration.